By James Moreland
Washington, DC
October 16, 2011
For the Washington Running Report

The 6th annual Boo! Run for Life 10K run and 2 Mile walk moved east about a mile and a half to East Potomac Park to accommodate the large crowd of people attending opening ceremonies for the the new Martin Luther King Memorial just north of the traditional course in West Potomac Park. Most of the course was the same, starting on the channel side and racing around the point to where mile one would have been and then returning home.

With all the elite runners at the Army 10 Mile last week and the Baltimore Running Festival Saturday, it was great to see more than 500 runners and scores of walkers to celebrate the near perfect autumn morning. One runner tried to find fault with, “Did you notice the breeze on the river side.” Maybe it was three mph instead of the dead calm on the channel side. Pancake flat, this course was made for records and the event scored eight of them.

Three women’s records were soft and certain to go down though Hilary Cairns’ event record 37:20 would be untouchable. Lindsay Larose, 29, had an easy time winning in 39:09 to get a fourth. For nearly four miles Mary Davison, 38, held off Cindy Conant, 50, of Kensington, MD. But Conant has been busting up not just her division but winning races outright and she powered her way past to take the runner-up spot 40:09 to 40:25, while shaving more than 14 minutes off the record. Gay Petrey, 47, form South Carolina, one of seven states represented in the first 14 runners, knocked almost five minutes off her division’s record with 45:50.

Naomi Stanford, 61, does not race often but when she does she nearly always wins. More than one rankings winner from her division has expressed awe at her racing. Her only race in the spring winning the National Half Marathon in 1:41:25 was the top race of the season. Today she was a mile ahead of the former record in an excellent 46:37.

For the men Derik Thomas, 45, was stalking the top two runners racing along the river side by side at the four mile mark. Richard Andrews and Brian McMahon were racing side by side. Somewhere past the parking lot were the Awakening used to reside Andrews put on a move to win in 34:29. McMahon held on to the runner-up spot in 35:07 with Thomas nearly imposing his will in a record setting 35:19. Former record holder Kevin D’Amanda will soon be fifty but his very nice 38:31 would still be well off the masters record set by then 51-year-old Henry Wigglesworth in 34:48.

Even with a late start Steve San Miguel, 19, notched a new record 38:31 to take both 2009 and the 2010 top teens who had tied for the record. After Thomas the top master was 67-year-old Jim Noone. Noone made it look easy taking down Lou Shapiro’s event record by 21 seconds in a swift 43:19. Not far behind him Donald Hensel, 67, had set the 60-64 record three years ago in 44:01. Michael Wesbecher may have known that because he bolted across the finish line in 44:00 to reset the score.